Vacation (Part 3)

On Saturday we left Maine for a 2 hour drive to North Conway NH. It was a 2 hour drive to an amusement park called “StoryLand”. StoryLand is a child’s amusement park with rides that kids (and their parents) can ride as well as themed areas for play around children’s stories. They have a deal that if you get there after 3, you can stay for the rest of the day and the whole next day for the price of one day admission. We had reserved a room in a quaint NH Inn for the night and arrived a little before 3.

Our first experiences were in the story section and the kids enjoyed seeing the fairy tales come to life:

There was a great big Humpty Dumpty at the entrance that the kids loved and so we took a picture of all of them by him. Riley was a little embarassed and so just kept pushing the button which recited the tale.There was a great big “TreeHouse” with multiple slides and the kids loved it. It was right next to the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe (I guess for all of her kids to play near!).

Next we took a pumpkin ride (a favorite of the girls’) to Cinderella’s castle. We even got to meet Cinderella and take a turn on her throne.

Unfortunately, Riley was still afraid of the characters and besides, he isn’t into Cinderella. He wouldn’t even sit on the throne!

Later that night we rode on a big boat shaped like a swan to help Prince Charming save Cinderella’s butterflies whose color was removed by an evil witch. Luckily all of the butterflies were able to get their color back (and we avoided the buckaneer ship on the river!).

That was the end of the first night. We went to a local Friendly’s for dinner (and had our first major melt down as Riley decided he didn’t need to listen to me and could tell Logan not to listen to me!)…we left the waiting area to go out to the car…amidst wailing and screaming and whining (not me but them) that they would be good. After about 5 minutes in the car they settled down and we were able to have a nice dinner. The funniest thing was that as we were walking to the car I saw another family dragging their kids out and they sounded exactly like my kids! It made me feel sooooooo much less like the mean and horrible mother.

Day 2 dawned on a beautiful (but hot) summer day in the mountains. The NH mountains were the backdrop for this park and it was gorgeous. This day we started in the opposite direction from the nursery rhyme area. This was the amusement park area which we had perused on the train ride we had taken around the park at the end of the previous day.

The kids headed for this ride which was old fashioned cars that they got to actually drive around a track…there was a huge rail that prevented them from going off of the track but it was a little scary for me with Matthew st-t-t-r-r-r-e-e-t-c-c-h-h-i-n-g for the gas pedal and the steering wheel at the same time. Riley was in seventh heaven because they let him go on his own!

We essentially spent the rest of the day on their rides. Denise was chicken and wouldn’t let her kids on the roller coaster. I screwed up all of my intestinal fortitude and did it – it really wasn’t bad…not too many downhills which are my real downfall! I also took all of the older kids on the turtle twirl (their version of the tilt a whirl)…Okay this was a mistake and it took me about 15 minutes sitting next to it to stop the feeling that I was going to hurl! I also took Matthew on this flying fish ride (also a mistake for mom! but not as bad as the turtle twirl!).

Here is a picture of Denise and Nina and the two boys in the cage to protect us during the “safari” ride…good thing we were behind bars or those plastic animals might have gotten to us…One thing I did learn is that flamingoes get their color from what they eat…there were some bright blue ones there – I don’t know what they were eating but it was beautiful.

They have a very special carosel that is only one of two functioning in the world. It goes clockwise instead of counter-clockwise and instead of going up and down, the horses go back and forth on springs (you have to propel them). It was pretty cool!

The kids even felt brave enough to hold hands and get their picture with some of the storybook characters. Humpty Dumpty was a favorite …and Riley got into it at the last minute and was so proud that he had held Humpty’s hand…of course, the two hugs he gave Humpty beforehand almost knocked him over and I bet the actor was ready for us to leave! (and scared for his life!)

We also saw Mother Goose and all of the kids got to pet her goose.

Denise left around 2 pm but we stayed until almost 4 finishing up all of the rides (finally got to ride the buckaneer boat which had individual rowing rods which we were soooooo excited to do – unfortunately, this boat captain told jokes instead of signing “row,row, row your boat” and there was a little gnashing of teeth about that.

We finished with some soft-serve ice cream and the ride home. This was definately worth the price of admission and a fun place for kids under the age of 10!

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I’ve really enjoyed reading your blog. It’s amazing what you’re doing with those kids! I had to laugh about the Maine/NH trip! Hope you are doing well. Megan wants to visit Richmond – maybe we’ll get there someday!